


while everything else unravels

by Hymn



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Bromance, F/M, I'M UPLOADING IT ANYWAY, i wrote it before The Kiss, seriously guys the series ruined this, the one that broke Bolin's heart, this is ancient, this is so not canon-compliant, you know which Kiss I mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-01
Updated: 2012-07-01
Packaged: 2017-11-08 23:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/448785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hymn/pseuds/Hymn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In each other they find solace, warmth and understanding, and a remedy for sleepless nights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	while everything else unravels

**Author's Note:**

> Written after episode 4, The Voice In The Night.

Outside, the sky was steeped in starshine, a blend of black and violet, and the blue of deep water littered with pin pricks of light. It was beautiful, Korra thought; it was lonely. Her eyes, tired from sleepless nights, and all the tears she refused to cry, blurred the stars and the sky and the lights from the city into an overwhelming space. Amon waited for her in her sleep, and so she refused, once again, to go there.

Naga slept, and Tenzin, finally, after countless rustlings and worrying at her door, and the children and the monks, and the guards outside were quiet and still and sober in their dark uniforms beneath the darkness and the soft breeze. Korra came apart inside of her skin, still and silent, wide-eyed and wounded.

She stayed like that for a long time.

Finally, the sun bleached the sky like a slow wakening bloom, and Korra rose, and dressed, and faced the day.

.

At practice Korra was distracted, and Bolin was quiet, and Mako was too in love to notice. They forgave Mako, Korra thought, because they didn’t want him to see this part of them, this small and fearful aspect of who and what they were.

For Korra it was pride, but Korra imagined that, for Bolin, it was love.

“You’re a good guy, Bo,” Korra muttered into a wash towel. They sat, the two of them, on a low bench beneath a window, with the sun soaking in, while Mako went through the paces of his warm-up, crafting half-hearted flames that sputtered out in the wake of his soft smile and hazy eyes.

Bolin shrugged, his shoulders wide and taking up too much space, and Korra looked at him from the corner of her eye and thought that the way he scratched at his head sheepishly made him look smaller, made him safe, in a way she thought maybe he did on purpose, because he was Bo and wanted people to like him. Korra snorted, and nudged him firmly with an elbow.

“Saaaay,” Bolin mock-whispered, rubbing at his side and smiling at her, “I’m feeling the dumpling-urge coming on, and coming on strong. Why don’t you come and get some with me?”

Korra looked over towards Mako, who had a blush on his face. “Think McSwoony Pants over there will notice he’s been ditched?”

Bolin laughed, soft and sweet, and offered Korra his hand. She took it, following him out the gym, into the bright sunshine, the two of them worn and steady and one foot in front of the other.

.

“I spend most nights on the roof,” Bolin admitted around the fifth dumpling. The sun shone through the leaves of the tree they slumped beneath, dappling his honey-milk skin bronze, and catching on his eyelashes and his grass-green eyes. It lit shadows around his smile, and quickened his fingers into a nervous gesture, one that Korra could feel imitated in the beat of her heart.

Korra examined a dumpling in her hand, frowning at it as if mortally offended. “You’re really honest about this stuff,” she muttered.

Bolin ducked his head, plucked at the grass, and kicked her gently in the ankle. “That’s cause I’m really awesome! And, also. You’re my buddy, Korra. Buddies, like, talk about this stuff together.” They were quiet for a moment, before Bolin added pointedly, “Also, seriously, really awesome.”

It made her laugh. She laughed, and it was like her entire body took a breath it hadn’t realized it was holding before that moment. She ate the dumpling in one bite, and slumped against Bo, because he was her buddy, and he was awesome, and he sat alone on the roof beneath the same stars that Korra counted in the dead of night.

.

It took Tenzin four hours to fall asleep, and Korra twenty minutes to slip out from beneath Naga’s worried weight. From there it was all quickness and shadows, silence and motion. The waters around the Island were chilled and deep, like the night sky without the stars, so Korra swam on her back and opened her eyes wide despite the sting and looked at the wavering glow of stars and lights through the shifting current. She let her bending guide her, let her muscles loosen, let her heart hide in darkness, because sleep was still frightening and she was tired of being alone.

She met Bolin on the roof, dripping and wide eyed, mouth a quiet wound. He was laid out on the roof, right above his and Mako’s apartment, and Korra could tell he’d climbed up from one of the windows, and didn’t bother to think about how dangerous that was, this high up, because it was just like what Korra would do, and Bolin was strong and could handle it. Korra knew him that well. Knew she could trust his strength, hidden behind all his laughter and joking, tempered by kindness. She knew his expression, too, concerned and brave, and the way he reached a hand up to her, the first hand, she felt, that had ever reached out like this. 

She took it and he pulled her down. Stars burned in the sky and city lights sputtered below, and Korra used her firebending to dry and warm herself, to warm Bo from where he held her tenderly tucked beside her side. She took his hand in his and she wrapped an arm around him too, because Korra wasn’t the only one who could not sleep, who laid awake and frightened in a strange and turbulent time.

“I’ll protect you,” she told him solemnly.

He smiled at her.

.

She decided to be brave. “Bo, I’m tired. No, I’m exhausted. And I’m scared to let myself sleep, Bo, because he’s always there. He’s waiting.”

Bolin stroked her cheek, leaned his forehead against hers, and sighed, slow and deep.

“Hey buddy,” Bolin said. Then he smiled, all sweetness and charm and honesty. He said, “Korra. Will you protect me while I’m sleeping?”

Korra curled her fingers around his biceps, surprised. “Of course. I said so, didn’t I?”

“Is it okay if I protect you, too?”

Starshine and darkness and the sound of wind in the distance, and Korra tightened her fingers and said, “Okay,” into the space where her fear and pride as the Avatar lay tangled in the emptiness. This was okay, Korra thought. If it was Bolin then this was okay.

He kissed her nose, and grinned, and shattered the moment into comfort and strangeness, again. “But just in case,” he teased with an exaggerated flair, “we could always wear each other out until we’re too tired to dream!”

Korra leaned back, cocked her head and looked at him. He did that because he didn’t want to scare her, she thought. Because he wanted to protect their friendship, and because he was a good person. But she thought about it, and she thought about him, and she knew that Bolin didn’t lie, and that Bolin was brave when it came to what he wanted, and feelings, and other people, and she thought: he would like that.

And she thought, again, If it was Bolin, then it was okay. She grinned at him, raw and feral and completely at ease; placed her palm against his chest and pushed him down, so that his eyes turned big and dark and glorious, and his mouth slackened soft and surprised.

“Let’s get started then,” she smirked, and Bolin laughed, breathless and shivery, the best sound Korra had ever heard, and she claimed it, took it for her own in a kiss so that the wind wouldn’t steal it.

.

The sun streaked the sky rose and gold and peach and coral, and Korra and Bolin stayed curled beneath the covers in Bolin’s bed, and Mako, hearing their snores, slow and steady, let them miss practice, just this once.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything in a long time, so my apologies is this was less than acceptable! D:


End file.
